


With This Kind of Luck, They’ll Lose Our Bags for Sure

by thatsrightdollface



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Airplanes, Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Fluff, Love Confessions, M/M, School Reunion, Ultimate Talent Development Plan (Dangan Ronpa), sleeping medicine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-11
Updated: 2018-10-11
Packaged: 2019-07-29 08:18:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16260311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatsrightdollface/pseuds/thatsrightdollface
Summary: Hajime and Nagito are on their way to Sonia Nevermind’s faraway kingdom for a class reunion -- well, the class plus Hajime from the Reserve Course.  You know.  Hajime was always sort of resigned to the idea of strange things happening on a plane ride with the Ultimate Lucky Student, but he wasn’t expecting to learn something new.This was written for the Komahina Secret Exchange on tumblr, as a gift for tumblr user cactuplant.  :)  Her prompt was "Nagito confesses his feelings to Hajime on a 17 hour long airplane flight."





	With This Kind of Luck, They’ll Lose Our Bags for Sure

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cactuplant](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=cactuplant).



> Hi!! I hope you have fun with this fic if you read it. :D This is my second Komahina Secret Exchange gift for tumblr user cactuplant. I meant for this one to take place in the Ultimate Talent Development Plan universe, from the minigame after NDRV3. Have a great day~

It had been weeks since Hajime had heard from the former Ultimate Lucky Student, Nagito Komaeda, but he forwarded the invitation on to him anyway.  Even if Nagito didn’t get the message in time to actually come along with everyone, a pit opened up in Hajime’s stomach imagining how he would try to brush it off if he hadn’t been invited.  Nagito would swat at the air a little and laugh, if Hajime tried to apologize or get through to him somehow; Nagito would let his hair fall into his face without realizing and shrug in a way he probably hoped seemed playful.

Hajime told himself that Sonia Nevermind, the Ultimate Princess, had probably meant to invite Nagito to the fancy overseas palace vacation/school reunion thing she was hosting…  Even though the address she’d had for him on the e-mail list was from back at Hope’s Peak Academy, so it’d been shut down for a while now.  She probably just hadn’t realized.  When Hajime mentioned it to Chiaki Nanami – Ultimate Gamer and, if you asked anyone in her old homeroom, a frontrunner for Ultimate Class Rep – she’d just sent a really mysterious, cutesy emoticon he spent a while trying to interpret and said, “I figured I could leave all that to you, Hajime!  Nagito always makes sure _you_ have his latest contact info, after all.”

Well, it was true weird things _did_ consistently happen to Nagito Komaeda’s e-mail accounts.  And social media profiles.  And cellphones.  Weird things happened to Nagito Komaeda in general, actually, but he always turned up in Hajime’s notifications again with some sort of profile picture that made Hajime smile despite himself.  A four-leaf clover; a picture of Nagito himself looking windswept and lost, in front of some road sign on the other side of the world.  Nagito bounced back from the curveballs his luck threw him, and maybe it meant something that he wasn’t texting updates like that to _every_ body.

They were friends, after all, Nagito and Hajime.  Nagito had confessed that Hajime was the very first person to explicitly offer him friendship, trying to shuffle out of a really long handshake – (unless Nagito had been going for something _besides_ a handshake?) – back at that final holiday party just before they graduated from Hope’s Peak Academy’s “Ultimate Talent Development Plan.”  Or you know, _Nagito_ had graduated from the Plan – Hajime had been in the Reserve Course, and Nagito had never really let him forget it, back in the day.  They were friends despite however Hajime had felt about that, back then…  Friends despite the way Nagito said he couldn’t understand why Hajime was interested in hanging out with him at all, and despite all the things Hajime still couldn’t understand about him, even now.

Nagito had said that friendship meant he’d accept Hajime’s invitations whenever he could, and he had held up his end of the deal more enthusiastically than Hajime’d really expected…  Which had resulted in a few quiet trips to the bar, a handful of game nights hosted by that guy Kokichi Oma from school, and the most intense, possibly life-threatening evening of karaoke with Hajime’s university classmates ever.

When Hajime asked whether _Chiaki_ had known Nagito’s latest e-mail address, she just sent another cryptic emoticon and asked if he had time to play an online game with her for an hour or so.  He did.

…

It took Nagito a while to get back to Hajime, this time, but he said he was still game for the reunion.  Said, “I guess you were right, about someone always remembering to invite me,” and asked after Hajime’s life a little bit.  Simple things, like how his university classes were going, and whether his roommate Nakamura was still annoying.  Those details felt sort of out of place given the rest of the e-mail, though: apparently, Nagito’d been on lockdown for about a month, after stumbling across the grisly murder of some Togami Corporation higher-up on his way back from the convenience store.

He’d wandered out that night to buy what he described as “some pretty embarrassing stuff” – stuff he _definitely hadn’t_ wanted to get sorted through by a bunch of investigating detectives, but there you go.  Nagito assured Hajime that he’d gotten back to him as soon as he could, explaining away his silence with something vague about being targeted by the murderers as a witness, and then having to prove his own innocence to the Togami Corporation, and _then_ testifying in court with all sides looking at him sort of dangerously…  You know.  Nagito sprinkled in a little typed laughter through his explanations, every now and then, probably meant to assure Hajime everything was okay.

Well…  Everything was _a lot more okay_ now that Hajime knew Nagito’d made it out of all that in one piece.  That was what Hajime wanted to tell him, honestly, typing furiously just as soon as he made it through the e-mail.  He didn’t, though.  For some reason, he closed out of every new message window he opened.  Hajime told himself he’d see Nagito soon in Sonia’s Novoselic kingdom, at the very least.  He’d make sure any new wounds Nagito had were being properly taken care of, and…  That would be enough.  That would have to be enough.

…

Hajime knew he and Nagito would probably both have seventeen hour-ish flights into Novoselic…  And he’d figured they were both flying out from somewhere in Japan, too…  But he was still a little surprised when he caught sight of Nagito’s familiar flyaway pale hair from someplace in front of him in the bag-check line.  At first Hajime thought he would play it safe and wait for the guy-who-looked-like-Nagito to turn around, to be absolutely sure it was him before making a fuss in the airport, but then he noticed the battered novel tucked under the guy’s arm…  His untied shoelaces, his dirty coat, the bracelet hanging loose on his wrist…  And all of a sudden he realized: _“With the way I’m feeling now, I must’ve missed him more than I thought.”_

Hajime called Nagito Komaeda’s name, and…  Luckily, he _didn’t_ yell it at the wrong person.  The former Ultimate Lucky Student glanced over his shoulder, his expression melting from “guarded and sort of lofty” to something much harder to read when he saw it was Hajime waving.  Nagito peeled out of line and ambled over to join Hajime in the back, murmuring apologies as he went.  He looked exhausted, and his smile was a little faded and strange, but he held out a hand for Hajime to shake if he wanted to.  Nagito didn’t hold those handshakes much longer than he was really expected to, anymore…  At least, most of the time.  His hand was cold, and Hajime bought them both something to eat on the way to their gate.

Nagito tried to switch his flight a couple different times, before they actually boarded – so Hajime would have fewer chances of being hurt by whatever weird effect his luck might have on the journey, he tried to explain to the baffled airport clerks – but it didn’t seem like the next flight out was until the reunion had already started.

“It’s okay,” Hajime told him, shaking his arm a little.  It looked like the guy behind the desk was _really, uncomfortably_ close to calling security, after all.  Hajime knew Nagito wasn’t a threat, but all his talk about “chaotic luck” wasn’t exactly working in his favor here.  “We don’t want you to miss anything.  C’mon.  I’m your friend, remember?  It’s okay to fly with me.”

“The fact that you’re my friend is why I’m nervous,” Nagito’d sighed.  “But I guess it can’t be helped.”

The airport was a winding place, all blaring artificial light and stiff carpets.  Tons of strangers were moving all around them, bent over their phones or plugged into music no one around them could hope to guess…  Trying to somehow miraculously make their flights _without_ crashing into anybody, or propping themselves against the greyish walls to catch their breath, backpacks dangling limp in their hands.  Nagito held on to Hajime’s sleeve, just a bit, so he didn’t get lost in the crowd.  The sun was sinking lower outside the airport, splattering light off anything metallic in a way that left Hajime’s eyes burning.  It would set pretty soon after they boarded their plane.

There was a diorama display set up in one of the airport hallways, featuring work by Hope’s Peak Academy’s Lil Ultimate Art – Jataro Kemuri.  Nagito and Hajime didn’t have as long to inspect it as Nagito would’ve liked, though Hajime was still thinking about some of the cheerfully morbid themes as they made it down to their seats.  They’d be sitting a few rows away from each other, it looked like, with Nagito in an end seat close to the bathrooms and Hajime squished between a very tall woman with notebooks already spread out around her and a guy currently trying to keep his toddler from scribbling on the seat in front of them with a set of markers.  _“Lil Ultimate Art,”_ Hajime thought, without really meaning to.  Maybe this kid would grow up to be the next Lil Ultimate Art – but then again, probably not.

Nagito waved at Hajime, bending around in his seat.  He held up a notebook page with, “Are you bored?  Do you need a book or game or something?” written on it, and Hajime shook his head.  Nagito smiled, satisfied, and took a tiny bottle out of his bag; he tossed his head back and drank it all in one practiced motion.  When he noticed Hajime watching him quizzically, pointing at the bottle from over the toddler’s flailing marker-scribbling arms, he flipped the notebook page over and wrote, “Sleeping meds from Seiko.  I’m not the biggest fan of airplanes.”

Seiko Kimura was the Ultimate Pharmacist, so whatever she’d given Nagito to drink probably took his other medications into account.  It’d be safe, and with minimal side effects.  He might not even have a lot of jet lag symptoms when they landed, which was honestly something Hajime kinda wished _he’d_ prepared for.  And as for why Nagito didn’t like airplanes…  Yeah, of course.  It made sense he wouldn’t.  Hajime’d known the story of how Nagito’s parents had passed away for years, now.  He knew the rattled, almost manic look on Nagito’s face when he’d tried to change his flight just a couple minutes before, too, and the way he’d brushed himself off and tried to grin shakily as Hajime talked him out of it.

The sleeping medicine must’ve kicked in pretty quickly.  Nagito started writing something else in that notebook – something else probably meant for _Hajime_ , of course – but his head started lolling before he finished with whatever it was.  Soon enough his arms were folded around himself and he was using his coat as a sort of blanket, his head tipped to the side and swaying out into the aisle just a little bit.

That proved to be a problem a while into the flight, but at first Hajime just found himself wondering why he was thinking the word _“Cute.”_

…

Hajime was hunched over a handheld gaming system when it happened – specifically, he had been trying to beat the same boss for about two hours.  He had told Chiaki he would do his best to finish the game before they all met up, but now it sort of looked like he might have to admit defeat.  He’d been clutching the game system for so long that his fingers ached, and he still didn’t feel any closer to moving on.

Really, the flight attendant tripped over somebody _else’s_ bag, to start things off – somebody way up near the front of the plane, who was watching a movie on his laptop, feet crossed at the ankles and cheek cupped in his hand.  The flight attendant tripped over someone else’s stuff, and the cart of interesting beverages and snack packets she’d been pushing around went careening away.  That meant a lot of crashing, splattering noises…  Especially for such a late-night flight, with the whole plane floating in a cold, heavy sky, feeling cut off from pretty much everything.  The ocean was so far away beneath them, soft and faceless and endlessly dark.

Before Hajime even looked up from his latest showdown with this one especially annoying boss, he _knew_ the cart was somehow going to mess with that former Ultimate Lucky Student.  He flinched even before the hot water jug tipped over; even before Nagito woke up with a bleary sort of half-scream, choking words from his dream out into the real world accidentally and shaking somebody’s tea out of his hair.  Sure, other people ended up with sodas fizzing open and onto their important papers, or with cascading fruit salad bowls by their feet, but Hajime knew how many bones Nagito had broken over the years.

It wasn’t as full-on a hit as it could’ve been, but the hot water might not have gotten Nagito at all if his head hadn’t been drooping out into the aisle just that littlest bit.  Hajime kicked himself, for that.  He dropped his game system and stood up in his row, leaning past the guy with his sleeping toddler curled up on his lap and still clutching that set of markers.

“Nagito?  Are you okay?” Hajime called, but it didn’t seem like anybody really noticed him, except maybe the businesswoman in the window seat next to him, who shifted her headphones deeper into her ears and shuffled her papers a little.  People were complaining about the spills, after all, and enthusiastically demanding to be reimbursed for stuff that got wet… Overhead lights were clicking on all around them, and one of the flight attendants was presenting Nagito with a towel and some ice for his cheek.

Nagito seemed to be pretty dazed, still – he was smiling awkwardly around at the mess from the cart, and touching gingerly at the raw pink of the skin that had been burned a little.  It didn’t look like anything that’d stick, from what Hajime could see, but Nagito was still dizzy from the Ultimate Pharmacist’s sleep medicine.  He laughed when he mumbled something Hajime thought might’ve been, “Oh, that hurts,” but Hajime knew he laughed the most when he was surprised or nervous.

“Hey, Ms. Flight Attendant!” Hajime called, again.  “Nagito, turn around so I can see how bad it is, okay?”

Nagito was asking whether Hajime was calling for him, and whether the plane had crashed yet, and why the flight attendants were so worried about him pressing charges.  He’d been hit by much worse than a little hot water, over the years…  And that was true, sure, but Hajime almost couldn’t stand the resigned, apologetic lilt in his voice as Nagito talked about it.

“He probably has ointment in his bag, or something!”  Hajime tried, and one of the flight attendants pointed over to him, now.

“Is that ‘Mr. Hajime?’  Are you traveling together?” she asked Nagito, who squinted out into the plane like he was trying to see underwater.  His face relaxed when he noticed Hajime standing up, though – relief and trust and familiarity like the sun coming out.  The sun, even here.

“Yeah,” Nagito said.  “Yeah, though he looks so _angry_.  Hajime!  Hello!”

Hajime waved hello on cue, and Nagito waved back, sort of sloppily.  Drooping a bit, again, but also looking a lot more like where he was made actual sense.  It was a small scene in a plane full of temporary, cart-related chaos, but the grandmotherly-looking lady next to Nagito in his up-by-the-bathrooms row nodded conspiratorially.

“Aw, your boyfriend’s probably just worried about you,” she said.  “Maybe he’s wondering why all these nice flight attendants haven’t moved the both of you up to first class, or something like that.  As an apology.”

“My boyfriend?” Nagito laughed.  “Hajime?  Oh, no.”

Hajime had been expecting that.  Even with the Ultimate Pharmacist’s medicine in his system, even with mysterious plane-ice wrapped up in paper towels and dripping down his face…  Hajime had expected Nagito to find the idea of them dating ridiculous.

What Hajime hadn’t been expecting was for Nagito to continue…  _Or_ turn around to include him in the conversation, too.

“No,” Nagito said, “But maybe in another life!  Without my luck, without…  Ahaha, I was terrible at flirting in high school.  Well, I’m terrible at flirting _now_ , too…  Right, Hajime?  But if I thought I’d be good for you, of course I’d – I mean, why wouldn’t I confess, if I thought I’d be good for you?”

Hajime couldn’t process what he was hearing, for a long second.  The flight attendant lady was asking if she could look around in Nagito’s bag to help him find the ointment Hajime had mentioned; Nagito was shrugging and saying he’d pulled back at the last second every time he’d tried confessing to Hajime before.  Hajime deserved someone who wasn’t a walking disaster magnet half the time, and someone who didn’t drop off the face of the earth every now and then.  A boyfriend like that would only make him worry, and Hajime probably had his pick of people from both the Ultimate Students lineup and the Reserve Course, anyway.  Nagito didn’t need to ask, apparently, to believe he knew what the answer had to be.

Huh.  Well, Hajime was clicking a _lot_ of pieces into place that he’d never really considered possible, about now.  He was scooping his game system and backpack up off the floor and muttering “Excuse me-s” to the guy next to him as he shuffled out into the aisle.

 _“I think there’s a lot of things about me you’ll never understand…”_ That’s what Nagito had said, holding on to Hajime’s handshake just a while too long, back at that final Hope’s Peak holiday party.  Maybe Hajime had some idea what he might have been talking about, now.

When Hajime got up to Nagito’s row, he asked the grandmotherly lady if it would be alright for the two of them to trade seats.  He did it very stiffly, without meeting her eyes.  And then he settled in next to Nagito, making sure that the paperback book he’d been carrying around was propped up so it could dry off.  Nagito was drifting off to sleep again, soon enough, with Hajime’s hoodie as a makeshift pillow. Hajime shoved up one of the armrest seat divider things, really, so Nagito could lean into him instead of drifting into the aisle again.  He folded an arm around him, shifting the ice up against his forehead.  He’d adjust it again, soon, and then probably end up with chilly wet paper towels in his lap unless one of the flight attendants walked by with one of those trash collection bags.

…

Nagito woke up for another few minutes, just before the sun rose…  As they were flying over the edge of a new country, with lights flickering beneath them like the dark world shaking itself awake.  It would still be a while yet before they reached the Novoselic kingdom.  Nagito rubbed at his cheek and winced.  He watched Hajime play that video game he’d told Chiaki he’d try to beat for a second, and the first boss fight he watched was the only one Hajime actually made it through.  Then Nagito gagged into his hand, and shuddered, and propped himself up so he could watch Hajime’s face, instead.

“Earlier…  Did I say –?” Nagito asked, quietly.  It sounded like the words stung him.  Like he was peeking under a bandage to see how bad the damage was.

Hajime considered lying, but then he offered, “Don’t worry.  I’m not going to hold you to anything you said while messed up on that much sleep medicine.  What did Seiko even give you, anyway?”

Nagito groaned.  Shook his head against Hajime’s shoulder.  Hajime thought he might take his words back – scrub them clean, somehow.  Or try to.  He’d say something about the Reserve Course, maybe.  Something about talent, and a hope huge enough to save the world.

But instead Nagito said, “That’s _not_ how I imagined confessing to you…  At all.”

“Did you mean any of it, though?”

Nagito paused.  He glanced around for a second, at the sleeping passengers and his waterlogged paperback and the city lights outside.  Then he reached over and pressed a button on Hajime’s game that led him down a previously invisible tunnel.  Lots of power-ups in there.

Finally, Nagito said, “If I remember right…  Crap.  Of course I did, Hajime.  I’ve _always_ liked you.”

And Hajime squeezed Nagito’s shoulders tight for a second, then.  He felt the former Ultimate Lucky Student relax against him, confused and warm and drifting just a couple inches above another dead sleep.  He pointed out that of all the ways Nagito Komaeda could have confessed to potentially wanting to date him, this was possibly one of the least unusual, _“going-to-confuse-all-their-friends”_ options…  And Nagito murmured that yeah, he was probably right.  He sounded happier than Hajime thought he had ever heard him.

And then he was sleeping, again.  Bam.  Out like a light.

The plane flew on.


End file.
